Abstract

The performance of dielectricelastomer actuators is limited by electrical breakdown. Attempts to measure this are confounded by the voltage-induced thinning of the elastomer. A test configuration is introduced that avoids this problem: A thin sheet of elastomer is stretched, crossed-wire electrodes are attached, and then embedded in a stiff polymer. The applied electric field at breakdown,, is found to depend on both the deformed thickness, h, and the stretch applied, . For the acrylic elastomer investigated, the breakdown field scales as . The test configuration allows multiple individual tests to be made on the same sheet of elastomer.